Hieronymus Cock - Pictorum Aliquot Celebrium Germaniae Inferioris

Pictorum Aliquot Celebrium Germaniae Inferioris

At his death in 1570 he left behind the most prominent print publishing establishment in Europe north of the Alps. His widow Volcxken Diercx continued the publishing house until her death in 1601. In 1572 she published the popular book by Dominicus Lampsonius called Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies, a set of 23 engraved portraits of artists with short verses printed below them, sometimes signed "IHW". The list of artists in the Hieronymus Cock version were (in order): Hubert van Eyck, Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts, Bernard van Orley, Jan Mabuse, Joachim Patinir, Quentin Matsys, Lucas van Leyden, Jan van Amstel, Joos van Cleve, Matthys Cock, Herri met de Bles, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, Pieter van Aelst, Jan van Scorel, Lambert Lombard, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Willem Key, Lucas Gassel, Frans Floris, and ending with Hieronymus Cock himself. The book includes a poem by Lampsonius dedicated to the memory of Hieronymus Cock and applauding the work of his widow. In 1610 22 of these prints served as models for Hendrik Hondius I who published a book of the same name with 69 engraved portraits, though he dropped the portrait of Cock himself. This last portrait (often numbered 23) may however have been dropped because the inscription under it claims the likeness was made after death, rather than being drawn as was more customary, "ad vivum" or after the living model.